Thursday, 28 February 2013

Low Duo - Born Into A Spider/Winter

Single review by kev@thesoundofconfusion.co.uk

The whole anti-folk scene that grew up a few years ago was all a bit puzzling. As to what exactly constitutes anti-folk we don't really know, and no one else seems to either. The bands given that label often shared little in common, and many of them were really quite folky anyway. So as genres went, this one was rubbish, if it even existed. If it's OK with whoever decides these things, we'd like to call this new single from Sheffield brothers Low Duo anti-folk, at least for the first track, the second is probably just some form of acoustic music that someone somewhere has probably invented another silly sub-genre for.

The reason why 'Born Into A Spider' could be called anti-folk is that it takes what could be a regular acoustic song and deliberately steers it away from folk while using the exact same instruments. It's just a guitar and a voice, that most basic of pairings, yet the vocals are crisply distorted and the guitar is noisy and ragged. Lyrically it's somewhat warped and surreal, but that's hardly a revelation. Still, the main thing worth noting is that it's a very good tune (excuse our hipster language there). 'Winter' is a simple but likable song that's much more delicate and unhurried; it's certainly very sweet. We've come to the conclusion that Low Duo are anti-bad.